


Please Just Pretend (Only for a While)

by lightbulbmoments



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Cheerleader! Nicole, Crushes, F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, First Kiss, Fluff, Happy Ending, NO ONE LIKES CHAMP, Pining, kind of?, nerds being nerds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-03
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-04-17 16:08:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14192715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightbulbmoments/pseuds/lightbulbmoments
Summary: Prompt: My ex is a huge asshole and I need a reason for him to stop trying to win me back so I told him we were dating andplease go along with it.Giving Rosita a pointed look, she turned reluctantly back to Champ, plastering a faux-sweet smile on her face.“I’m already dating someone else.”He looked utterly gobsmacked.





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> midterms are causing me to perish

“Champ; for the _last_ _time_ ,” Waverly took another deep breath, “I don’t want. To go out. With. _You._ ” She turned away sharply and started walking back towards Rosita, who was leaning against the school gate, evidently trying not look as if she was listening. Waverly knew better than to hope the girl would let the conversation slide - as soon as they got out of earshot, she could expect a thorough commentary to the whole thing. However, before she could take more than a few steps, Champ grabbed at her arm to try and stop her. _Big mistake._

Wrenching her arm away with a disgusted look on her face, Waverly tried desperately _not_ to imagine the _oh-so-satisfying_ sound her fist connecting with Champ’s face would make. This was the third time this _week_ that she had had this exact conversation with him, and every time, he belligerently refused to let the break-up sink into his thick skull. As he went to open his mouth - probably about to try _yet again_ to change her mind, Waverly snapped.

“No. Just no. I _don’t_ want to change my mind - and I’m not _going_ to. I’m. Not. Interested.” She punctuated each word with a shove - not hard enough fully push him over, but nowhere near the realms of friendly. They were _way_ past that. Before he could say anything else that would make Waverly _actually_ punch him, Rosita walked quickly up to them, the amused smirk her face hiding the worried expression Waverly could still see the edges of.

“C’mon Waves; let’s go already.” Without waiting for a reply, she tugged Waverly insistently away, and out of the school gates. They walked in silence for a couple of minutes, but as they entered the park they usually hung out in after school, Rosita caught a glimpse of the angry tears that had been steadily forming in Waverly’s eyes. Wordlessly, she pulled the girl into a tight hug, and quickly maneuvered her to a nearby bench. As they sat down, Rosita rubbed Waverly’s back soothingly. _Crap._

The two of them had been best friends since almost the start of high school; Rosita had just moved from a new town, and although she had thought it was strange that Waverly didn’t immediately have hoards of friends - the girl was practically an _angel_ \- she had quickly learned of her older sister’s reputation. To her surprise, though, Waverly didn’t really have seemed to mind it, preferring instead to stay in the library between classes. That had been where Rosita initially met her, rushing to print off homework that was due in for the next period. Waverly still jokes that, without Rosita’s ‘completely non-existent time management skills’, they still wouldn’t know each other - but they share so many classes (because, really, how _many_ people would you expect to take Ancient Languages?) that neither of them really believe it.

“Hey - no - don’t cry over _him_ , Waves.” Rosita had never particularly liked Champ - and now her voice was laced with even more disgust than before. “Honestly, it was about time you broke up!”

“He’s just so… _obstinate_ ! What if he keeps hanging around me - what if he never goes _away_ , Rosita?” By now, Waverly had sat up, and was angrily rubbing at her eyes. “You’re right - I’m _not_ going to cry over him. He’s not worth it.”

“You’ve got _that_ right,” said Rosita grimly. “Shall I call Wynonna? Ooh - we could get Jeremy to hack his phone or something…” Her mind was already filling with possibilities - although Waverly stopped her quickly.

“No - that would probably just make it worse…”

“Well we have to do _something_ to make the asshole leave you alone. Uh - tell him you’re dating someone else!”

“Well that _could_ work… apart from, um the _slight_ issue that… I’m _not_?”

“Yeah, obviously - but it’s not like he’s a _complete_ stalker; you don’t need to say who it is…”

Waverly still wasn’t convinced. “Maybe… I’m not sure though - wouldn’t it be worse if he found out?” She trailed off, unsure, and the two girls sat in a comfortable silence that was only broken when -

“-What did I miss?” Jeremy was breathless, and it sounded like he must have run all the way to the park from their school. “I was just checking on an experiment - I guess I lost track of time…” He bent over, his hands on his knees.

“Exhibit A: why you shouldn’t skip every single Track session to blow things up,” said Rosita dryly. “How are you going to impress Hat Boy like this?”

Jeremy looked up so fast Waverly swore she heard his spine crack. “I told you not to call him that,” he hissed over Waverly and Rosita’s laughter. In the lull that followed, Jeremy quickly caught his breath and, unsurprisingly, changed the subject. “Aaanyway, is this about Champ? He looked more stupid than usual when I saw him leaving school.”

“Yup,” confirmed Rosita. “I was just telling Waverly that she should tell him she’s dating someone else so he’ll _finally_ get the hint.”

To Waverly’s surprise, Jeremy actually _agreed_ , and Rosita turned back to Waverly with a triumphant smirk on her face: “See even _Jeremy_ thinks it could work!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jeremy’s faux-outrage made them all laugh, and Rosita hastened to add, laughing,

“ - not that there’s anything wrong with how you approach people; no - I’m sure Hat Boy will _eventually_ understand that you completely avoiding him _at all times_ means you’re completely and utterly in lo-”

“Hey!” To Jeremy’s dismay, the girls descended into fits of giggles, but as he noticed the remnants of tear tracks on Waverly’s face, he decided to let it slide. Just this once.

* * *

 

Jeremy had insisted on them all accompanying him to the football match (“It will be _weird_ if I go by myself…”), so there they all were, sitting in a row while Rosita fiddled with her phone. Waverly was hoping desperately that Champ wouldn’t turn up, but as the game drew to a close, she heard a familiar voice behind them. He wasn’t yet near enough for her to make out what he was saying - and she’d rather it stayed like that.

Trying to stay as inconspicuous as possible, Waverly attempted to nudge her friends into moving away from his. Rosita stood up at once in silent understanding - she must have heard him too, Waverly assumed - but Jeremy refused to move. His eyes were fixed on a particular player, who Waverly only _just_ recognised without the familiar, cowboy-esque hat that he seemed to wear whatever the situation.

“Oi, Chetri- stop ogling Holliday and _move_ !” Even though she had said it under her breath, Waverly _knew_ Champ must have heard herself. As all-too-familiar footsteps approached them, she braced herself for yet another confrontation and turned around with a scowl already firmly in place.

Waverly was not at all surprised by what he said; it was almost word for word the same as the previous time - and, for that matter, the time before that. She grimaced every time he said her name, and attempted to tune out until he had finished pleading with her. It was quite pitiful, really.

So inattentive was she that Rosita had to elbow her when Champ had finished speaking. _It wasn’t like he would have said anything she wasn’t expecting._ Waverly opened her mouth, already resigned to repeat herself all over again - and then changed her mind. Giving Rosita a pointed look, she turned reluctantly back to Champ, plastering a faux-sweet smile on her face.

“I’m already dating someone else.”

He looked _utterly_ gobsmacked. “W-what?”

Waverly gestured in the general direction of the playing field behind him, and he spun around, trying to determine who she meant. After a moment, his brow furrowed in confusion. (It didn’t take much to confuse him, if Waverly was honest. He wasn’t exactly the _brightest_ ; Rosita and Jeremy had never understood what she saw in him - and now she was beginning to see their point.)

“Perry?” Champ sounded disbelieving for a second, and then angry. Rosita shook her head frantically, mouthing something to Waverly that she could only _just_ make out.

Waverly quickly made to correct him, remembering almost too late that Perry (one of the - self-proclaimed - ‘popular’ boys) was already going out with another girl. “Of course not.” She tried to sound as disparaging as possible, and pointed towards the pitch again. “Look - there.” _Who would he think she meant this time?_

It was a complete coincidence that, at that moment, one of the cheerleaders turned and saw Waverly pointing in her general direction. Waverly didn’t even know her _name_ (although the girl _did_ look _vaguely_ familiar from one of her smaller Advanced Sciences lessons). Looking only slightly confused as to why Waverly was seemingly pointing straight at her, she waved happily back.

Champ looked furious.


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A confrontation, an explanation and a revelation. (They're both slightly blind to it - but I'm sure that will all be resolved soon...)

“But - but you’re not -”

“Not  _ what _ , exactly?” Waverly’s voice was icy, and Champ took an involuntary step back from her.

“That’s disg-”

Rosita cut him off, also taking a step forwards. “If I were you, I would think  _ very _ carefully about what I was going to say next.”

As Champ tried to take another step away, his back collided with the railings around their stands, which made an ominous rattling noise. He glanced downwards nervously - and froze.

At this point, almost everyone was watching the awards being given out in the centre of the pitch, clapping politely when each of the names were read out. Almost everyone, that was, except the girl who had waved at at them. Instead, she was looking straight at them, evidently curious about what was happening. Waverly was surprised that she didn’t seem to think the situation was  _ stranger _ (but then again, the girl was a  _ cheerleader _ ; she probably had countless students try to pretend to know her). When the girl saw Waverly also looking at her, she ducked her head, blushing, and gave another small wave.

Waverly  _ really _ needed to find out what her name was - although she didn’t really know how to describe her  _ (other than the obvious ‘insanely attractive). _

Not knowing how to respond, Waverly smiled awkwardly, hoping the girl could see it from her position off to the side of the pitch. Evidently she could, though, and as she turned to the girl next to her (her friend? Waverly  _ hoped  _ they were just friends  _ \- although she couldn’t really figure out why… _ ), tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear, it became apparent that Champ had  _ also _ seen it.

His anger was palpable now, and before any of them could stop him, he was storming down the steps leading to the pitch. Champ’s heavy footfalls were audible even over the babble of the now gradually dispersing crowd - the awards had all been given out and now everyone was preparing to leave.  _ Waverly had been so distracted that she didn’t even know which side had won. _

Without even really thinking about what she was doing, Waverly was running after Champ. She  _ couldn’t  _ let him reach the girl  _ (who she now felt strangely responsible for) _

Just before she reached the stairwell, she heard footsteps behind her.  _ Rosita _ . Reluctantly, she slowed to a halt - and Rosita almost barrelled into her.

“Do you even know her name?” Rosita sounded faintly amused ( _ or more likely just pleased that Waverly was, it seemed, going to follow her plan _ ) _. _

“...No?”

Rosita sighed. “She  _ is _ in some of your classes, you know. Her name’s Nicole. Nicole Haught.”

As soon as Rosita had finished speaking, Waverly was running down stairs, yelling a quick “Thanks!” over her shoulder. She desperately didn’t want to leave the girl -  _ Nicole -  _ to face Champ alone; she had a pretty good idea of what he would do, and  _ none _ of it was pleasant.

Sure enough, although she arrived only a few seconds after him, Champ was already mid-tirade. Trying to pull him away, she shot what she hoped was an apologetic smile at Nicole - but it likely resembled something closer to a grimace. However, Champ was refusing to move, his speech becoming more and more littered with the misogyny Waverly had lately come to expect.

Champ paused for a moment, breathing heavily, and Nicole pounced on the momentary gap in conversation.

“What  _ exactly _ was your point, besides demonstrating  _ just _ what a misogynistic asshole you are? That certainly seems to be the only thing you’re convincing me of.”

Waverly was instantly impressed by how collected the girl sounded, especially faced with Champ’s yelling (which had steadily increased in volume).

When Champ opened his mouth to reply, he was interrupted yet again - though this time by Waverly. She had no idea whether the girl would play along  - but Rosita’s plan was, unfortunately, the only plan they had.

She turned to Nicole, silently pleading for the girl to play along. “I know we haven’t made it official yet, but I was just telling my  _ ex _ -boyfriend how he should stop trying to make me take him back because I’ve obviously moved on - and am dating someone else.”

At the word ‘ex’, the girl had raised her eyebrows questionningly, but had now adopted a more intrigued expression. She mouthed something to Waverly - but Waverly couldn’t be sure what.

Champ didn’t look convinced, and Waverly was just about to fold and admit the whole thing (and then probably punch him anyway - it  _ needed _ to be  _ done! _ ) when Nicole gracefully looped her arm around her shoulders, leaning in to press a kiss to Waverly’s cheek.

“That sounds about right, Waves.”  _ How did she know Waverly’s name? _

Waverly was frozen in place, her face burning. She could feel the exact place Nicole’s lips had brushed her cheek, and was sure she wouldn’t be able to say a coherent sentence any time soon. Luckily, Nicole turned to Champ and started to say something else, leaving Waverly to silently panic for a few moments in peace. When she could finally think straight -  _ actually, the kind-of kiss was still playing on repeat in the back of her mind, so maybe… think clearly? -  _ again, she turned her attention once more to the conversation, just catching the tail end of:

“...  _ dare _ you take her from me?” Champ’s face was contorted, his eyes wild and faintly bloodshot, and something inside Waverly seemed to  _ snap. This was it. _

Before she could launch herself at Champ, however, there was a blur of movement, a solid  _ thump  _  - and he was lying on the ground before she could even take a step towards him.

Waverly was  _ stunned _ .

“There were  _ so _ many things wrong with that statement.” Nicole shook out her hand nonchalantly, and then held out her other hand towards Waverly, who took it without thinking. “First of all, I’m  _ pretty _ sure Waverly wouldn’t have stayed with you if you were  _ literally _ the last person on the planet.”

She looked towards Waverly for confirmation, and Waverly nodded vehemently.

“And  _ second _ of all, even if she had, this would  _ certainly _ not made her  _ yours. _ This isn’t the 17th Century. Learn some respect.”

Waverly thought she heard Rosita clapping from behind them.

When Champ didn’t respond, Waverly gently tugged Nicole away, and they walked away towards Rosita and Jeremy. They had only got a couple of feet away when Waverly noticed Nicole was shivering slightly.  _ She shouldn’t have been surprised really; it wasn’t like her cheerleader covered… much of  _ anything _ , really. _

Waverly pulled her jumper off quickly, half-terrified her arms would get stuck. That _would be humiliating..._ She offered the hoodie to Nicole with a sheepish grin and an awkward:

“You looked cold?”

Nicole pulled the hoodie on gratefully, its hem falling to just below her cheerleading skirt. _ How was she not  _ completely _ frozen? _

Rosita and Jeremy were waiting by the stadium doors for them, and, raising her eyebrows, Rosita glanced towards their linked hands pointedly (although Waverly  _ knew _ she had been watching the whole thing play out).

“Getting serious, are we?”

Waverly blushed, and went to move her hand away, but Nicole just squeezed her hand tighter, smirking.

“Well, we  _ are  _ dating, apparently.” She looked expectantly towards Waverly, but it took her an embarrassingly long time to realise that Nicole  _ probably _ wanted an explanation.

“Yeah, um, about that…”

* * *

Rosita had offered to drop them both off on her way home (she was  _ still _ the only one with her license), and on the way, Waverly had - with frequent interjections from both Rosita  _ and _ Jeremy - explained what had happened with Champ the previous week.Nicole seemed, to Waverly’s surprise, to be completely on board with what she had done. In fact, Nicole had invited Waverly to her house to ‘get to know each other.’ Rosita had flashed Waverly a suggestive smirk as they got out of her car - which Waverly had tried  _ very  _ hard to ignore. (She still couldn’t tear the majority of her mind away from the loop of Nicole kissing her cheek though, and Nicole  _ still _ hadn’t let go of her hand.)

Waverly stood awkwardly in the doorway of what must be Nicole’s room. The other girl was alternating between apologising for the mess, and hurriedly picking up various items scattered over the floor, then shoving them into closets or drawers apparently at random. Waverly had tried protesting, but Nicole hadn’t taken any notice.

When Nicole finally seemed satisfied, she flopped onto her bed, and gestured for Waverly to join her. Tentatively, Waverly sat down on the edge of the bed, fiddling with the end of her plait.

“So… what’s the story?” asked Nicole, after a few moments of awkward silence.

Waverly didn’t understand. “I thought I had already explained,” she said slowly. “Champ and I -”

“- No, not  _ that _ ; how did  _ we _ meet? We’re dating, remember? So surely we should have a story or something?”

“Oh, right…”  _ It was a good point - Waverly should have thought about it more _ , she realised.

“I was thinking,” Nicole’s voice was casual, “that it should have been after class one day? Because I share seven lessons each week with you, so I could just have gone up to you one day and asked about homework or something? And then we could have… just gone from there.”

“It’s almost like you’d planned this out!” laughed Waverly, and Nicole blushed, staring intently at her hands.

“Do you think it would work?”

“Definitely! Who knows, maybe in another time…” Waverly trailed off meaningfully, and Nicole turned - if possible - even more red.

“Maybe,” she agreed, and started laughing quietly. Her laugh was infectious, and without even knowing why, Waverly had joined in. Soon, the two of them were giggling uncontrollably, and Nicole buried her face in Waverly’s shoulder.

Waverly froze for the _second_ time that evening, Nicole’s hair tickling her nose. Slowly, she brought a hand up to awkwardly pat Nicole’s back. _What was she doing?_ _And also - she smelled_ really _nice. Was that weird?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi comments and kudos make me smile :) thank you  
> have a nice day/night/time!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> what we've all being waiting for

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT'S BEEN A WHILE AND IM SO SORRY

“So…” Rosita somehow managed to turn the seemingly innocuous word into the trailing question Waverly knew had been coming since she had called Rosita to pick her up at almost midnight.

“Rosita,” she said patiently, “nothing’s happened. We just  _ talked... _ . a lot.”

The disbelief on Rosita’s face was evident even in the dimly lit car. It was obvious she would need more than that to be convinced.

“What? How is it so hard to believe that we didn’t - what was it you said?”

“I don’t think I  _ said _ anything…”

Exasperated, Waverly blurted out: “You know I’m not gay, right?”

Rosita just raised her eyebrows. The silence stretched on, until - 

“Okay - so... I might be? I don’t  _ know _ !”

“And there we go. It doesn’t matter, really.” Ever pragmatic, Rosita didn’t seem the slightest bit fazed. It was almost as if she had seen through mess of thoughts that were whirling around Waverly’s brain, which had only been exacerbated further by the coffee Rosita could  _ tell _ Nicole had given her.

“I don’t know how I hadn’t talked to her before this! She seems so…  _ cool! _ ”

“That’s one way of putting it,” commented Rosita with a wink Waverly chose to ignore.

“We have loads of stuff in common, as well.”

“Mmhm.”

“And like you said, we’re in  _ loads  _ of the same classes.” 

Just as Rosita was pulling into the Earp’s drive, she heard Waverly’s phone go off.

“I wonder who  _ that _ could be.”

Waverly blushed, quickly turning away from Rosita to take the call. With uncharacteristic thoughtfulness, Rosita turned on the car radio and at least  _ pretended _ to not be curiously trying to listen in on what Waverly was saying. The grin on Waverly’s face told her who she was talking to - _ obviously _ \- and just as Waverly was saying goodbye, Rosita swiped the phone from her friend’s hands.

“Hey, Haught!” Rosita sounded obnoxiously cheerful, considering how just how late it was.

Try as she might, Waverly couldn’t hear what Nicole was saying - she could only piece together what Rosita was responding with.

“Yeah, I’m just driving her home… Probably shouldn’t give her coffee so late next time…”

Waverly interjected with an indignant “Oi! I’m not a child!”, but Rosita waved her off, laughing into the phone.  _ Nicole must have heard her. Fuck. _

“Are you trying to tell me there  _ won’t  _ be a next time, Haught? ...that’s what I thought.”

Waverly was  _ desperate _ to know what Nicole was saying now, but despite her increasing irritation, Rosita kept talking, holding the phone  _ just _ out of arm's’ reach.

“Yeah - see you there. Bye.” As Rosita disconnected the call, Waverly fully expected to be once again reunited with her phone. However, the girl turned away from her so Waverly couldn’t see what she was doing, and quickly typed out a text that Waverly  _ prayed _ wasn’t to Nicole. She wasn’t, however, very hopeful.

When Rosita tossed the phone back, Waverly frantically scrolled through it to the texts to see -  _ nothing _ .  _ She must have deleted it afterwards. _ As she glared at her friend, her phone buzzed again, and she looked down to see Nicole’s reply to the message Waverly could only guess at.

“‘You too’? And a face? Rosita... what did you  _ say _ ?!”

_ Obviously, _ Rosita wouldn’t say, preferring to say -  _ repeatedly _ \- that Waverly should just ask Nicole -  _ like that would ever happen! _

* * *

 

For the second time in as many weeks, Waverly found herself sitting with Rosita and Jeremy, watching yet another football match. However,  _ unlike  _ the previous time, they were there under  _ her _ insistence, not Jeremy’s.

Rosita had immediately seen through her flimsy excuse of ‘wanting to go so Jeremy would’, but had so far managed to contain herself to a mere  _ three _ comments pointing Nicole out to Waverly - _ as if Waverly’s attention could be torn away even for a second from the girl in the middle of the cheerleaders’ section. _

The game passed in a blur of goals and yelling, but Waverly hardly cared who won. _Actually - no - she_ did _care, because whenever their team scored, Nicole shone the brightest grin at her._ _Well - probably not at_ her _\- but Waverly could only hope._

The bleachers were almost clear by the time Waverly, Jeremy and Rosita were making their way down. As Jeremy hung back - presumably to watch Hat Boy as he packed up his kit - Waverly pulled Rosita down the steps.

“We should… go congratulate them!” 

Rosita gave her a blank look. “Since when do  _ you  _ care about football?”

“ _ Obviously _ I care, Rosita - why else would I be here?”

“You mean, aside from the obvious?” It seemed to Rosita that Waverly was being purposefully obtuse. Before Waverly could process what was happening (or rather, before she could stop her), Rosita was striding away - towards  _ Nicole _ .

Waverly ran to catch up, but Rosita had always been a lot faster. She must have only said a couple of sentences - she had stopped talking by the time Waverly reached her and Nicole. Gently, Rosita pushed Waverly towards the other girl, before flashing a suspiciously wide grin at Waverly, and running back to the bleachers (presumably to collect Jeremy).

“Hi Waverly!” Nicole was still out of breath from the game, but she sounded so  _ happy _ to see Waverly. She had tried avoiding Nicole since the last match, hoping the whole thing with Champ would blow over.  _ It still hadn’t. _

* * *

 

Every time she and Champ passed each other in the corridors - and although Waverly had been going to great lengths to avoid him, this had already happened  _ far _ too much to be merely a coincidence - he had shot her his signature betrayed, angry look. It wasn’t pleasant.

Rosita had, fortunately, been with her most of the times this had happened, armed with a scowl and a protective arm around Waverly’s shoulders (or was it just to make sure Waverly didn’t try to punch him again - who could even tell anymore?).

All in all - and unluckily for Champ - his behaviour had only made Waverly dislike him even  _ further _ , a thing she herself hadn’t even thought possible until recently.  _ Another consequence was that is reminded her of  _ Nicole _ , who would never do anything at all similar to what Champ was doing - who seemed to Waverly to be becoming more and more perfect. _

They had started hanging out a lot more, unsurprisingly  _ \-  _ although, every time they did, Waverly had to remind herself that it was just because she had roped her into this  _ cliche  _ of fake dating. It wasn’t like Nicole  _ wanted  _ to be there - they would almost definitely ended up existing completely outside one another’s circles had Champ not… happened. Waverly would have kept on turning up at school each day, not expecting Nicole to already be waiting for her just inside the school gates ( _ how was she always earlier than Waverly? _ ); kept on sitting with Jeremy and Rosita at lunch instead of seeing Nicole already in the lunch hall with four spaces saved next to her  _ (and Waverly’s was, unfailingly, next to the girl herself). _

_ If Waverly had entertained the possibility that maybe,  _ maybe _ , Nicole might not be completely against their ‘relationship,’ then who could know, really? It was only natural to  _ wonder _... _

* * *

 

And so there they were, Waverly standing somewhat awkwardly in front of a girl who she might have accidentally developed real,  _ actual _ feelings for.

Rosita scurried away gleefully, her work done. As Waverly and Nicole stood in mutually uncomfortable silence, Waverly’s phone buzzed.

_ 1 new message. _

Shooting an apologetic look in Nicole’s general direction ( _ because who, really, could expect her to meet  _ those _ eyes? _ ), she pulled out her phone, only to let out a despairing noise.

_ \- oh btw in case it wasn’t clear, nicole’s giving you a lift home. she knows. see u tomorrow ;) _

Waverly could feel Nicole’s eyes on her, and knew without even looking up that she  _ knew _ \- that Rosita must have told her. Why did she have to be so unfairly good at guessing what Waverly was thinking (although Waverly wasn’t a particularly good liar, so there  _ was _ that, too…).  _ Fuck. _

_ Waverly was going to  _ murder _ Rosita, and no one would ever find the body. _

“Yeah, um, sorry about… that…” Waverly trailed off, finally looking up from the increasingly enthralling grass that was so helpfully dissimilar to Nicole’s eyes. She gestured weakly towards the general direction Rosita had disappeared off to, and Nicole gave a quiet laugh.

_ That was good, right? She hadn’t yelled at Waverly, or anything - and she was still  _ here _ , standing in front of her. That must mean  _ something,  _ mustn't it? _

“Uh...” Waverly was seriously considering following Rosita’s lead and leaving Nicole in the middle of the pitch. She was  _ not  _ prepared for this conversation, the inevitable “So, this is awkward and I don’t want to pretend to be dating anymore,” conversation; the “This was a terrible idea - please never speak to me again,” conversation, even. She  _ thought _ that she was, but once again, Nicole had proven her wrong.

“I think I’m just gonna go -” Waverly was just turning away, when Nicole reached out and caught her hand, and  _ oh God that was so cliche what was wrong with her why wouldn’t it stop? _

“I like you.”

_ Well  _ that  _ was unexpected. _

“Sorry - what?” Waverly had never been smooth in her life, and had coincidentally, never felt more confused. “Excuse m-”

And then Nicole was leaning forwards and this must be the day of  _ all cliches _ , because she had taken a step towards her and Waverly hadn’t even  _ noticed _ and she knew what was going to happen but she hadn’t really processed it until it  _ did _ .

The kiss was soft and sweet, and so fleeting that Waverly would have sworn it never happened if it wasn’t for the feeling of Nicole’s lips on hers - a feeling that she was already playing over and over in her mind, and one that she was unlikely to forget for a  _ very _ long time.

* * *

 

Wynonna came home earlier than they had expected, but at the sight of them curled around each other, pretending to watch something  _ neither _ of them were paying much attention to, she only laughed quietly and gave her sister an approving grin which Nicole luckily didn’t see. Waverly scowled at her and turned back to Nicole, but Wynonna caught a glimpse of her sister’s sappy expression before she turned away.

* * *

 

The next day, when Rosita swung around to pick Waverly up for school, she found not only the girl herself but a sheepish Nicole, standing in the drive with her arm around Waverly’s waist. 

There was going to be a  _ lot _ of explaining to do to Jeremy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> again, sorry for the delay :( i hope you enjoyed this final chapter!
> 
> edit: this is complete; i won't be continuing it. _however,_ i am extremely open to any and all prompts you might have - just drop them in the comments!

**Author's Note:**

> comments and kudos make my day! and if you have any prompts please put them in the comments or you can leave them @the-lightbulb-anon on tumblr :)


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